This invention relates to ammunition boxes, and, more particularly, to ammunition boxes designed for belted munitions used to feed rapid fire weapons such as gatling guns.
Rapid fire arms such as gatling guns and machine guns requires the use of ammunition boxes for storage of the large quantity of munitions needed to supply such weapons. In general, such weapons utilized individual bullets joined or linked by a continuous belt. The belted munitions are folded into ammunition boxes and fed therefrom to the particular weapon. Ammunition boxes generally present a box-like shape with a narrow width compared to the length and height dimensions. Such boxes are generally wide enough two rows of bullets separated by a divider wall.
However, it became apparent because of the longitudinal profile of bullets, namely, the pointed projectile end and fatter powder cartridge base, the cartridge base stacks are higher than the projectile end. This non-symmetric stacking has been known to cause interliking of adjacent folded belts leading to jamming of the ammunition belt and subsequent loss of weapons fire until the jam is cleared.
To rectify, soldiers learned to create a cross divider using the ammunition belt itself. The soldier loading the ammunition box takes a length of the bottom layer of the belt and folds it against itself. The folded section is arranged vertically thereby creating a corresponding widthwise bend in the remaining folds of the belts placed atop the folded section.
However, this leads to inconsistent ammunition belt loads. If the folded section is too tall, the ammunition box cannot be loaded as full as normally desired. If too short, the benefits of the folding are eventually lost in the top folds of the ammunition belt.
Another source of jamming with present ammunition boxes is the crossover point where the belt crosses from one side of the divider wall to the other. Since the front portions of the boxes are generally of equal height, on occasion, the belt portion crossing over inadvertently entangles with the remaining portion of the belt also causing a jam.
Thus, there is a need for an ammunition box which provides a consistent load without jamming. The present invention meets this need.
It is an object of this invention to provide a simple, easy to use ammunition box providing a consistent ammunition load.
It is an object of this invention to provide an ammunition box which minimizes ammunition jamming.